Members of Brooklyn’s Park Slope Food Coop will be voting on more than work shift arrangements at the Coop's monthly General Meeting in March. They’ll be deciding on whether they'll be having a co-op wide referendum about the Coop’s stance on human rights.
On the agenda for the March 27 meeting is a proposal spearheaded by a diverse group of the Coop's members on holding a referendum to determine the Coop’s participation in the global nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel's violation of international law and human rights. Members hope the vote will bring some sort of conclusion to over two years of heated arguments in meetings and in the pages of the Coop’s biweekly newspaper. A vote in favor of a referendum would allow all 16,000 Co-op members to vote on the boycott. Opposition to even voting on having a referendum has been fierce. Those in favor of a Co-op boycott are hoping for a yes vote on the referendum. Without it, only members present at a General Meeting (typically a few hundred) could vote on whether the Co-op will join the boycott. "On an issue that Co-op members feel so strongly about", according to one of the organizers of the boycott, "it is essential for the entire membership to have a voice". Read more here.
No comments:
Post a Comment